Madhur Bhandarkar's 'Calendar Girls' exposes the dark side of the glamour world, but fails to make a connection

Sep 25, 2015 19:20 IST

IBTimes India Rating: 1

Remember "Chandni Bar", "Page 3" and "Fashion"? No doubt you do, because they were all well-made movies which tore through the romantic mush Bollywood's best were busy feeding us with.

Madhur Bhandarkar's "Calendar Girls" is the story of five girls who walk in from different quarters of the country to the city of dreams, Mumbai, to feature in a magazine shoot that takes them to Mauritius.

The twist of fate catapults the girls to dizzying heights of success, which they do not know to handle and end up settling for jobs not meant for them.

So, how is this any different from Bhandarkar's last -- "Heroine" -- which told one-film-wonder actress Mahi's (Kareena Kapoor Khan) story and how she was razed to the ground even before she could relish fame and bask in glory?

This time, he has brought in a bunch of fresh faces and introduced camera angles which need special names such as 'I-like-sleaze-more-than-aesthetics'.

Films like these are supposedly the ones with a 'message'. Here's what "Calendar Girls" has to say: Bollywood's hiring scriptwriters, those with some sort of intelligence can apply.

Akanksha Puri, Avani Modi, Kyra Dutt, Ruhi Singh, and Satarupa Pyne do justice to what the wafer-thin script offers them. Suhel Seth, as the business magnet, is charming and true to the promise, he never seemed to be imitating liquor baron Vijay Mallya.

For Bhandarkar, this is home turf and so he makes no mistake in highlighting the ugly underbelly of the glamour industry. But, it's time he charted other territories.

In a nutshell, "Calendar Girls" shouldn't be on your weekend things-to-do list.